Physical Treatment Reduces Trypsin Inhibitor Activity and Modifies Chemical Composition of Marama Bean (Tylosema esculentum)

The utility of the marama bean (MB) as an alternative protein source to soybean (SB) can be limited by the high concentration of trypsin inhibitors (TI). The physical treatment of MB has the potential to ameliorate the antinutritional activities of TI and modify other chemical components. Thus, this study investigated the effects of physical treatments on the chemical components and trypsin inhibitor activity (TIA) of raw MB and SB. The bean substrates were subjected to each of the following treatment methods: (1) room temperature (20–22 °C) soaking for 24 h; (2) electric stove cooking at 100 °C for 10, 20, and 30 min; (3) steam autoclaving at a temperature of 110 °C and pressure of 7 pounds per square inch (psi), as well as a temperature of 121 °C and 7 psi for 5, 15, and 30 min; (4) pre-soaked autoclaving at 110 °C (7 psi) and 121 °C (17 psi) for 5, 15, and 30 min. Treated MB and SB had greater (p < 0.05) crude protein content than untreated samples. All the treatments (except 24 h soaking of MB) reduced (p < 0.05) the TIA and ash content. Marama and SB are similar in protein content, but their amino acids profile and TIA are quite different. Soaking for 24 h was less effective in reducing TIA in MB and SB, compared to the thermal methods, and it was detrimental to the ash and amino acids profile of the two beans. Soaking prior to autoclaving yielded beans with the lowest TI concentrations. In conclusion, thermal methods reduced the TI contents and modified the level of proximate components and amino acids profile of the beans.     

A model for the problem of ground vibration induced by the wheels of a moving train

This paper presents a three-dimensional model for the analysis of ground vibrations excited by forces transmitted to the ground from the wheels of a moving train through the track. The field equations are solved by using scalar wave functions. From the computed results presented here, certain qualitative conclusions can be made to enhance our understanding of the physical problem.     

A real-time monitoring approach for bivariate event data

Early detection of changes in the frequency of events is an important task in many fields, such as disease surveillance, monitoring of high-quality processes, reliability monitoring, and public health. This article focuses on detecting changes in multivariate event data by monitoring the time-between-events (TBE). Existing multivariate TBE charts are limited because they only signal after an event occurred for each of the individual processes. This results in delays (i.e., long time-to-signal), especially when we are interested in detecting a change in one or a few processes with different rates. We propose a bivariate TBE chart, which can signal in real-time. We derive analytical expressions for the control limits and average time-to-signal performance, conduct a performance evaluation and compare our chart to an existing method. Our findings showed that our method is an effective approach for monitoring bivariate TBE data and has better detection ability than the existing method under transient shifts and is more generally applicable. A significant benefit of our method is that it signals in real-time and that the control limits are based on analytical expressions. The proposed method is implemented on two real-life datasets from reliability and health surveillance.     

A mapping finite difference model for infinite elastic media

A simple mapping finite difference model is presented for the solution of boundary-value problems in the theory of time-harmonic elastic vibrations. The finite problem domain is condensed by mapping into a smaller finite domain using a suitable coordinate transformation. The field equations and the boundary conditions are also appropriately transformed. The radiation condition at infinity is satisfied through a change of the dependent variable. Finite difference forms of the transformed equations are then solved in the mapped domain, subject to the transformed boundary conditions.     

Coast effect on geomagnetic variation fields in Southwestern Nigeria: a preliminary note

Summary Gough-Reitzel recording magnetometers were deployed at five sites in southwestern Nigeria to study the night time geomagnetic variation fields and determine the induction effect in the area. TheZ (vertical) component field shows strong positive correlation with theH (horizontal) component field perpendicular to the southwestern Nigeria coastline. The induction arrows point in the direction of the Atlantic ocean for periods of 25, 42 and 73 minutes but decrease gradually inland. All these indicate normal ?coast effect? as the main induction anomaly in this region. To speed up publication, the proofs were not sent to the authors and were supervised by the Scientific Committee.